The Basketball Australia iiNet MVP Awards saw Bishop (pictured above, with ball) rewarded with the accolade – named in honour of retired Australian star Robyn Maher – for her role in helping the Jayco Opals Australian team to qualify for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Bishop logged 26 points in the crucial third game of a qualifying series against New Zealand last year.

She was also key in the Australian Women's University Games team that claimed bronze at last summer's Universiade.

Bishop will hope to replicate that form at this summer's Olympics alongside Suzy Batkovic, who was also honoured at the awards.

The Adelaide Lightning star was named the Most Valuable Player in the 2012 Women's National Basketball League (WNBL), despite her team losing to Dandenong in the competition's preliminary final.

"It's a real honour to win this award," Batkovic said.

"While the season didn't end the way we would have liked for Adelaide, the move to South Australia has been really good for me.

"I had a pretty good season and one of my goals was to be as consistent as possible – and minus the injury I was able to get that done."

Kevin Lisch (pictured below) was presented with the men's Most Valuable Player award after scoring 17.6 points per game for Perth Wildcats.


The ever-consistent Brad Newley, the best performer in the Australia men's  team, received the Gaze Medal - in honour of Andrew Gaze, one of the greatest players in the country's history.

Other winners included Batkovic's Adelaide colleague, Peter Buckle, who was named as Coach of the Year.

Carley Mijovic claimed the Betty Watson WNBL Rookie of the Year accolade after averaging 9.1 points per game for the Australian Institute of Sport.

Anatoly Bose was handed the men's Rookie of the Year award after averaging 15.5 points for Sydney Kings.

New Zealand Breakers' Andrej Lemanis was the men's Coach of the Year having guided his team to the brink of the league title.

The Awards dinner was held at the luxurious Palladium at Crown in Melbourne.

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